March 2022
In next week’s budget watch out for the tax cut that won’t cut your tax
Next Tuesday, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg will deliver the 2022-23 budget. As it is only 2 months from the next federal election, the budget will be even more politically charged than usual.
Stage 3 Tax Cuts Go to Wealthy Occupations, Low & Middle Income Earners Miss Out: Report
New economic research reveals that the Stage 3 tax cuts proposed by the Federal Government will give Bank CEOs, surgeons, and federal politicians a windfall tax cut of $9075, while low-income workers like aged care workers, disability careers and minimum wage employees get $0.
A budget for buying votes or backing workers? [webinar]
Today we bring you another conversation from the Australia Institute’s webinar series. The Coalition Government’s ninth Federal Budget on 29 March will be an election Budget. Against the backdrop of a cost of living crisis, ACTU President Michele O’Neil looks beneath the likely hype to talk about what will really matter for workers. This was
Morrison’s economic lies
Scott Morrison lies about the economy all the time. He can’t help himself. He tells big lies about transitioning away from fossil fuels and small lies about the role of his office in the way grants are directed to marginal seats. He tells strategic lies about the union movement engaging in “a campaign of extortion”
Flat wages and booming house prices cause housing affordability to plunge
Since the stimulus measures introduced in 2020 to prop up the housing market during the pandemic, house prices have exploded. In 2021 property prices across Australia’s capital cities rose an astonishing 24%. Combined with the stagnant wages growth of the past 8 years, housing affordability has fallen dramatically.
The People’s Choice
In the last Burning Platforms before the Australian Federal Election we run the rule over the policies being offered up by the major parties. Is it just Coke vs. Pepsi? Or are there bigger ideas at play? Recorded live 13th March 2022. Regular panelists: Peter Lewis, Director of The Australia Institute’s Centre for Responsible Technology
Record number of people working multiple jobs reveals the problems for workers
The latest Labour Account figures from the Bureau of Statistics reveal that at the end of last year a record percent of people were working more than one job.
Australia’s Lopsided Economic Recovery
While the headline news of 3.4% GDP growth in the December quarter of 2021 might suggest the economy is bouncing back, Greg Jericho, Policy Director for the Centre for Future Work, has found that the national accounts reveal just how badly workers are missing out.
February 2022
International Collective Bargaining Experts Explore Future System Reform
Multiple negative economic and social consequences have emerged across Anglophone industrial countries from the retrenchment of collective bargaining systems, including slowing wages growth, rising insecure work, inequality, and declining productivity and growth – bringing urgency to proposals for collective bargaining reform.
Welcome Result to Economically and Ecologically Irresponsible NSW Floodplain Harvesting Farce
The Australia Institute welcomes today’s disallowance of floodplain harvesting regulations in the NSW Parliament. “This regulation would have given the green light to huge diversion of floodwater with terrible ecological, social and economic consequences,” said Rod Campbell, research director at the Australia Institute. “Diverting water beyond the limits in the Basin Plan has contributed to
What’s going to be in the Budget?
The budget is come soon and, because it’s an election year, income tax cuts are squarely on the agenda. In today’s episode we ask, who really benefits from the government’s legislated tax cuts? New research from the Australia Institute suggests anyone earning under $90k could be worse off. Recorded live on 22 February 2022 and
Loss of Bargaining Power Explains Wage Stagnation
The latest wages data from the Bureau of Statistics shows that in 2021 real wages plummeted, with inflation raising by 3.5%, while wages increased just 2.3%.
SA Survey: Labor Hold Narrow Lead, State Not Adequately Prepared for Open Borders
New research from The Australia Institute shows the Labor Party holding a narrow 2PP lead, 51%-49%, one month out from the 2022 state election. The Australia Institute’s survey of a representative sample of 602 South Australians also found there is strong sentiment in the community that the state was not adequately prepared when borders were
A Rich Man’s World: Government’s Tax Plan Overwhelmingly Benefits High-Income Men
New research from the Australia Institute reveals that the largest part of the Federal Government’s tax plan will overwhelmingly benefit older, high-income men – despite the Government’s attempt to highlight how much young women have to gain. The Stage 3 tax cuts due to come into effect 2024-2025 will see men get twice as much
Interest Rates and the Federal Election
For the first time in a decade the coming election will be at a time of increasing inflation and talk of rising interest rate. And while it is clear interest rates are always a political hot potato, Greg Jericho writes in his latest Guardian Australia column that we should not lose sight of the need for government support.
9 in 10 Taxpayers to Pay More Tax Under Current Government Plan to Scrap LMITO
An electorate analysis of the Federal Government’s current plan to scrap the LMITO (Low and Middle Income Tax Offset) after 2021-22, shows most taxpayers will be worse off when the legislated Stage 3 tax cuts to high income earners comes into effect in 2024-25. Key Findings: Scrapping the LMITO will see 90% of taxpayers pay
Power, Not Just Supply and Demand, Vital to Future Wage Growth
Australia’s unemployment rate declined to 4.2% in December, and it could fall further (below 4%) in the coming year, barring further waves of COVID or other global shocks. This has some forecasters predicting a quick acceleration in wage growth — which has been stuck for almost a decade now at the slowest pace in Australia’s postwar history.
Digging Deeper Into Australia’s Unemployment Rate
Australia’s unemployment rate is poised to hit its lowest level in a half-century, and this has been heralded by the current government as an economic triumph. But the unemployment rate depends on many factors (including labour supply, hours of work, and others), and does not by itself assure that the economy is maximising its potential.
Josh Frydenberg’s ‘Great Reshuffle’ another sign Coalition is out of touch with reality
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg’s recent declaration – that wage-restrained workers need simply participate in the so-called “Great Reshuffle” to find better-paid jobs – underscores just how disconnected the federal government is from the harsh realities facing many Australian workers. With shades of former treasurer Joe Hockey advising youth priced out of housing to “get a good job that pays good
Tax-deductible RATs deliver nothing to the lowest-paid. How very Morrison government
The recent decision to make Rapid Antigen Tests (RATs) tax deductible rather than free will deliver nothing to low paid essential workers and big savings to high income earners. How very Morrison Government. While a part-time cleaner working in the aged care sector will likely receive zero benefit from tax deductible RATs, someone earning $200,000
Australia could be a sustainable Electric Vehicle Manufacturing Powerhouse
Rebuilding Vehicle Manufacturing in Australia
Australia ready to become sustainable EV-making powerhouse: new research
A unique combination of advantages has handed Australia a historic chance to become a sustainable global manufacturer of electric vehicles – provided the federal government acts swiftly and decisively, according to new research by the Australia Institute’s Carmichael Centre.
Australia’s aged care crisis is nothing new. It’s just worse than before
Aged care was in crisis long before the pandemic arrived on Australian shores, yet even more than 500 deaths in one month is apparently not enough to make it a greater priority than attending the cricket for the Aged Care Services Minister. How good is Australia? It’s not that long since the royal commission delivered
Of 3’s, and Other Important Labour Market Numbers
Will an unemployment rate with a 3 in front it, ensure that we also get wage growth with a 3 in front of it? Don’t count on it.
CPI Numbers Don’t Tell the Whole Story
With the rise in inflation as Australia’s economy struggles with re-opening and supply chain problems, each release of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) generates headlines and political debate. But the CPI doesn’t necessarily provide a full reading of price pressures: depending on who you are, and what you buy. In this column published in the Guardian Australia, Greg Jericho (new policy director for the Centre for Future Work) dissects several measurement issues related to this most-watched economic statistic.
January 2022
Summer series – Raising the Age: Getting children out of prison
Our summer podcast series brings you some of the best conversations from our webinars in 2021. Everyone knows that children do best when they are supported, nurtured and loved. But across Australia, children as young as 10 can be arrested by police, charged with an offence, hauled before a court and locked away in a
Summer Series – Australia’s growing wages crisis with Sally McManus [webinar]
Our summer podcast series brings you some of the best conversations from our webinars in 2021. A fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work was an essential element of the promise of Australia. The last 30 years have seen a dramatic shift of the share of Australia’s prosperity going to profit and away from
Resource Investors Back Electrification Over Fossil Fuels
New research released by The Australia Institute shows that new investment in the resource sector is overwhelmingly focused on electrification minerals rather than fossil fuels. Key Findings: In the last year, 42 companies targeting electrification minerals listed on the ASX compared to just one fossil fuel company. The newly listed resource companies look to produce
Two thirds of WA gas given away virtually free
New research from The Australia Institute shows that virtually no tax or royalty is paid on two thirds of the gas exported from Western Australia. Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) worth $27 billion was exported from WA last year, while only $430m went to the State Government, just 1% of state budget revenue. Twice as much
Snatching Defeat from the Jaws of Victory: Labour Market Implications of Australia’s Failed COVID Strategy
As COVID and recession gripped the world, through 2020 and most of 2021 Australia recorded one of the best outcomes: lower infection, fewer deaths, and a faster, stronger economic recovery. That seeming victory has been squandered, however by the appalling and infuriating events of recent weeks. Purportedly in the name of ‘protecting the economy’, key political leaders (led by the Commonwealth and NSW governments) threw the doors open to the virus at exactly the wrong time: just as the super-infectious Omicron variant was taking hold.
General Enquiries
Tanya Martin Executive Assistant
mail@australiainstitute.org.au
Media Enquiries
Jake Wishart Senior Media Adviser
jake@australiainstitute.org.au